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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Wilkinson Monument, Peabody, Massachusetts

This tombstone was photographed at the Monumental Cemetery in Peabody, Massachusetts

This gravestone is also a family mystery



1830    ROBERT W. WILKINSON 1874
1831    PHEBE C.  HIS WIFE          1895
1856    WALTER                              1858
1855     R. HENRY                           1884
1884      EDWARD POOR               1884
1860     ALBERT M.                        1908
1863     ISABELLA B.                      1935

This is not the original gravestone for the Wilkinson family.  About fifteen years ago a volunteer through the Genealogical Acts of Kindness website transcribed the epitaphs for the three stones at this family plot and they read:

Robert W. Wilkinson
died March 23, 1874
aged 43 years, 8 months and 27 days
"Gone to that spirit land,
We are waiting to meet you there"

R. Henry 

"Baby"
[I assume this might have been for Edward Poor Wilkinson, R. Henry's child?]

Now there is a large monument to the entire family at Plot #950 at Monumental Cemetery.  I don't know who bought the new monument, or what happened to the original gravestones.  It is a mystery.  Apparently 15 years ago many of the family members did not have individual stones, or they had been lost, broken or stolen.

The Wilkinson Family

Robert Wilson Wilkinson, son of Aaron Wilkinson and Mercy F. Wilson, was born on 26 May 1830 in Salem, Massachusetts, died 23 March 1874 in Peabody, Massachusetts; married on 24 November 1853 in Danvers to Phebe Cross Munroe, daughter of Luther Simonds Munroe and Olive Flint.  They had three sons:

   1.  Robert Henry Wilkinson, born 14 January 1855 in South Danvers (now Peabody), died 22 September 1884 in Peabody; married on 18 April 1883 in Peabody to Eliza Harris Poor, the daughter of Nathan Holt Poor and Abigail Morrill.  She was born on 27 October 1854 in Danvers, and she married second to Moses Bailey Page on 18 July 1893 in Peabody.  Robert's only son, Edward Poor Wilkinson, died at two months old on 10 October 1884, just two weeks after Robert's own death.

   2.   Walter Wilkinson was born 3 November 1856 in South Danvers and died on 2 April 1858 in South Danvers.

   3.   Albert Munroe Wilkinson was born 7 November 1860 in Danvers, and died 12 May 1908 at the Corey Hill Hospital in Brookline, Massachusetts; married on 18 October 1894 in Salem to Isabella Lyons Bill, daughter of Caleb Rand Bill and Ann Margaret Bollman.  Isabella was born in January 1863 in Machias, Maine and died 19 January 1935 in Beverly, Massachusetts.  They had two children.

All of Robert Henry Wilkinson's sons died young.  The only one who had children who lived to adulthood was the youngest son, Albert, my great grandfather.  Of his two children, only my grandfather, Donald Munroe Wilkinson, had descendants.  None of us know who bought or erected this monument, which is quite large and very grand.  It is a mystery.

Here are some links to more genealogical information on my Wilkinson lineage:

A post with my lineage back to Thomas Wilkinson of Portsmouth, New Hampshire:

All the known descendants of Thomas Wilkinson for six generations:

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To Cite/Link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ Wilkinson Monument, Peabody, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 22, 2014, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/04/tombstone-tuesday-wilkinson-monument.html: accessed [access date]). 

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

2 comments:

  1. Did you check at local cemetery headstone carving businesses? I'm assuming the cemetery office had no details. How lucky that you had the transcriptions already!

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    1. Yes, I'm lucky. I walked by this one two or three times because I was looking for an old 1800s style stone. I never thought it would be so modern!

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